Get Together and Create Food Art for Our Vine Challenge

One of life's greatest pleasures is sharing good food with good company.

We partnered with MasterCard to bring you this week’s Mashable Vine Challenge. Make mealtime fun by creating food art animations on your plate. We want to see unique Vine videos that use edible items to explore the concept of getting together.

See also: Sit Back and Enjoy These 6-Second Remakes of Classic Movies

Animate beans and grains shifting around on a plate to form a pair of hands shaking, or a couple of faces made of ketchup turning their frowns upside down. Try recreating a fine dining setting in a mini diorama, or glue googly eyes on your fruits and veggies and give them some character. Read more...

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Hotel Owner Apologizes for Policy That Charged $500 for Bad Reviews

"Union Street Guest House went viral for all the wrong reasons," Chris Wagoner, the owner of the hotel called out for charging guests $500 for bad online reviews, wrote Tuesday.

Wagoner's lengthy apology is a response to the public outrage sparked by the policy listed on the hotel's website, which included the charge as part of an agreement for booking the venue for weddings and events.

See also: 12 Rugged Hotels Exposed to the Elements

Before the hotel removed the language from its website, it spelled out a firm fiscal penalty for bad reviews:

If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. Read more...

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Famous People: Facebook's New Elite

Facebook rolled out a new app last month that strictly caters to famous people

Well, sort of. The app, Facebook Mentions, lets public figures and celebrities — anyone who's verified, really — see what fans are saying about them in a dedicated mentions feed.

See also: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook

Elliott gives his take (while also defending Whoopi Goldberg) in the newest episode of Mashable Minute

Earlier this week, we told you about a legion of troll-fighters on Vine. Check it out:

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. Read more...

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10 Dos and Don'ts for Back-to-School Social Media Etiquette

You Can Now Embed Tweets Within Tweets on Twitter.com

Vine Updates iOS App With Customizable Notifications, Improved Sharing

Vine's iOS notifications just got a little more like Twitter's.

The video-sharing app released an update Tuesday, rolling out customizable notifications, improved sharing and a revamped home screen.

See also: 9 Smile-Inducing Vine Videos to Bring You Joy

"We’ve heard feedback that you want more control over notifications and which you receive, both via push notifications and in the Activity tab," Kristian Bauer, a software engineer for Vine, wrote in a blog post. "With today’s update, you can now customize notifications to your heart’s content by accessing the Notifications menu in Settings." Read more...

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Capture Art on the Walls for Our Photo Challenge

Street art photography is one of the most interesting genres in imaging; it encapsulates odd details in architecture and wall art with people in passing

A true master of this skill is photographer Can Ahtam, who will be guest hosting this week's Mashable Photo Challenge. We want to see photos of artwork on walls, with or without subjects in front of them.

See also: 11 Creative Portraits Without Faces

Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Ahtam began his photography journey several years ago. While he enjoyed it as a quiet hobby for a while, it wasn't until he joined Instagram that his photos were recognized and admired by many Read more...

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